Lego Organisation and Storage

This post is going to describe our love / hate relationship with Lego, and the journey we have been on regarding its storage solutions.  If you don't like lego, you might want to click away now......

So, I hare three boys, ergo, we have lots of Lego.  We are fortunate enough to have a house large enough to separate our toys.

Initially we had the lego organized in colors in this Ikea unit in the learning room

We initially purchased these lego tables and storage boxes from Toys'r'Us, as when we first moved here we thought the lego could go in Oliver's room, as Sebastian was so small

Obviously that didn't last long.  Here is Oliver playing with the Lego last year.  

After our trip back to England at Christmas 2013, the boys lego collection grew somewhat.  This was because I decided that it would be easier for us to transport Lego back on airplanes. i was darn right too!!!!

But this did fill up the boxes to the point of explosion.  It was near on impossibly to build anything from the instructions, and very frustrating for a then 5 and 7 year old.  So we decided to do something  about it.....

BEHOLD!

The ultimate lego storage system.  In the Amazon Black Friday deals last year (2014), we picked up these storage boxes.  Yes, the inspiration came from the Lego film, among other places 

These hold all the little fiddly bricks.  We moved the large blocks and flat pieces into the Ikea unit

Paul laminated the labels to go on the draws, and stuck them on using velcro tape, so they are easily interchangeable if necessary (we have had to change some already, the system has been in place since January)

They are arranged in 'types', like all the one block specials together, all the flats together, all the smooth bricks together etc, etc, 

The boys still have to hunt for bits, but just not through so many bricks.  Ok ,we may have made it slightly easy for them, but it was a pure nightmare before.  Even Paul and I couldn't find bricks most of the time.  Isaac had lost all his confidence in Lego building, and Oliver was getting very frustrated. Now they knock things up in no time, and have great fun playing with their creations.

Our boys love looking at the Lego instructions.  So they were starting to get a little beat up.  Paul had the idea, and we had seen on Pinterest, about putting them into folders.  We divided them into types, then Paul set about making spines for the folders. 

This whole Lego organization has been a labor of love for him.  He has done most of the work, while I dipped in and out.

Inside the instructions are in sleeves.  The folders are kept of a high shelf, mainly out of Sebastian's grip, as he is still a little rough with them. 

The boys have had great fun with their legos. This system has made everything so much easier for them.  We quite often spend time just building.  They are even fairly good at putting away, now they know where all the draws are......

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This is the link to my Lego board on Pinterest 

Wasn't meant to be a photo drop

So I am now the proud (!!!) parent of an eight year old.  Oliver had a good birthday, with a trip to Frankie's Fun Park, where he and Isaac raced each other in the go karts.  Isaac could barely see over the steering wheel, bless him.  We had dinner there also, which was very nice.

Here is Oliver with his cake.  I may have ordered one that was slightly too big....

Saturday morning we went to Cars and Coffee up at the Michelin headquarters on Pelham Road.  This is only the second one we have been to, they are on every month.  The boys loved it, and there was even a Ferrari, which Seb had kittens over.  It is one of his new words, except he calls it a 'errari'.  Thanks mum for the t-shirt, Oliver loves it.

We had a BBQ on Sunday, or as it was known in this house, race day.  What with the Monaco Grand Prix in the morning, the Indy 500 in the afternoon and the Nascar Charlotte race in the evening, there was no shortage of racing (I have 3 car mad boys, when is there ever a shortage of racing?!?).  We attempted ribs on the BBQ for the first time, and they were delicious.  Definitely something we will do again.

It was Memorial day Monday, which meant everyone was off.  We were able to see the hot air balloons from Aloft fly over the house every morning, which was lovely.  one day we will make that event, but at $20 each, it is not cheap, then there is the additional costs.... Maybe one day!

Instead, Oliver built his Millenium Falcon.  I was surprised how quickly he did it, it is a very complex set.  We got him some Technic Lego also, to possibly prepare him for the next step in his Lego career.

Another of Oliver's presents was a slot car set.  Scalectrix brand is not really rated over here, and difficult to get, so Paul found a Nascar Carrera set for a bargain price from a local independant toy store, OP Taylor's in Greenville.  This is the set Oliver got.  He then found a slightly different set on Craigslist even cheaper, from an expat who is on the move, so we ended up with that too.  Works well though, as the boys are able to have epic tracks.  Paul has download a track design app, so he is having great fun too!

Tuesday afternoon Seb and I spent some quality time at the pool.  I realized it would be our last afternoon just the 2 of us for about 12 weeks.  This photo was taken about 5 minutes before he toppled over from the same pose, and went head first under the water.  Didn't phase him, he just got out and jumped in again.  We are loving the pool this year, especially as it has now got really hot and humid.

Today was Oliver's beach day at school.  A half day, followed by another half day tomorrow, then he is done till the end of August.  Isaac chose to wear a shirt also today.  He now picks his own clothes in the morning.  He has some firm favorites, and some interesting combination.

Isaac has been having a hard time at school the last couple of weeks.  He is very emotional when things don't go as he expects, and is lashing out a lot.  Not sure what we are going to do about it yet, I have his conference in about 10 days time, so I will get a good chance to chat to his teacher then.  He is like it at home, but I have a feeling he may be getting bored/growing out of the Montessori way of learning.  We will see....

Thank you auntie Jen for Oliver's sticker album, he loves it. He has even managed to figure out how to do the stickers on his own.  If anyone has any Panini World Cup stickers spare/swaps, let me know and I will give you our address!  We already have some swaps from the many packets Jen sent!

Last but not least, I got my car back today after the deer incident.  Paul reckons the rear quater panel looks a bit different than it should but I can't tell.....I am just glad to have it back in time for our trip.  I will keep using the mini this week, then swap back to the X5.  I have missed my heads up display....

Obviously, the summer holidays are upon us, I hope to do a blog post in the next few days about what our rough plans are...…

********************Don't forget to look for #theyearofoliver******************************

Photo drop spring break

Isaac has been off this last week on spring break.  It has been so nice to spend some time with him.  Here are some photos with what we have been up to this week.

Sunday we headed up to the Kings Mountain area, just by the North/South Carolina border.  We intended to do Kings Mountain Military Park and Kings Mountain State Park.  We started at the military park by having a look at their museum, then did the battlefields trail.  This is a 1.5 mile trail around the battle field from the Revolutionary war.  There were many informative boards on the way, and you can get a tour on your phone if you wish.  There are many monuments along the way commemorating the people who took part in this important battle.

The boys did really well walking this trail, and hardly got carried at all.  We did it in about an hour, and thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the sun.

By the time we returned to the car, we were all pooped, so decided to give the state park a miss, and save it for another day.

Monday we met up with some friends, before atrocious weather set in for a few days.

Wednesday Isaac and I went for breakfast at IHOP.  I like doing this with my boys when they are off.  Now Seb is in school 3 mornings a week when the other 2 are off, be it separate or together, it is nice to do things just us.

Thursday morning Seb was off, so we headed to the zoo.  In the summer, they open at 9am, though all animals are not on display.  It turns out this is temperature dependent.  It was cold Thursday morning, and I did not dress myself or the boys appropriately.  I think we were the first ones in the zoo!  It was lovely.  The lemurs were playing, there was a snake up close to the glass, and the lions were roaring.  It goes to show, you can got to the zoo numerous times, and still see something different

Still take the same pictures though!

It was so cold, that I was not up for supervising the boys in the park.  We headed up to Pelham Road to meet Paul for a coffee.  My car has been in the garage for about 2 weeks following my run in with a deer.  I have had an X3 in the meantime, an alright car, but not my beast.  Paul had to had his car back on Thursday, and had decided on a Mini.  So I went to meet him to pick it up

It is an alright little car.  I quite like it.  A few differences to the X5, size being the most obvious. But......it has no sun blinds in the back and no heads up display.  Hopefully my car will be fixed soon (it's supposed to take 4-6 weeks)

 Good Friday I spent most of the day lying on the sofa watching HGTV, while Paul built  this

It was a full on pajama day, as the weather was supposed to be atrocious.  It wasn't too bad, but we enjoyed the down time as a family.  The boys watched a film or 2....

Having been cooped up all day Friday, we had to get the boys out today.  Unfortunately it had been raining again, for most of the day, so we decided to take them to Monkey Joes.  I had a coupon to get one in for free, so it wasn't too busy, and I was suprised how quiet it was.  They had a few electrical issues, never good in a room filled with bounce houses....  But they sorted it out, and the kids had a great time.

Then it was lunch at Twin Peaks.  What's nice about this place is the fact kids eat free Saturday and Sunday, making it a reasonably priced meal out. 

Today is  Easter Sunday, we are going to do our first ever egg hunt for the boys. Paul watched the Liverpool game this morning, followed by the F1, then a nice roast, and I think a day around the house.

Happy Easter everyone!

Christmas Capers 2013

Christmas Eve began well.  The boys were up about 8am,  and I realized I had left my spare insulin at my dads.  I now needed it.  Paul and I left the boys with my mum and Lee, and headed back to Aldershot to pick it up.  On the way back we stopped at Marks and Spencer's for a coffee and to have a little look.  I couldn't find anything for myself, but typically found some clothes for Oliver.

We arrived back at my mums for lunch time, so headed in to Wokingham for some lunch.  We had a delightful meal at Cafe Rouge. This is in an old building which used to be a pub.  It was very nice.  We have noticed how much easier it seems to be to take kids out to eat in this country.  It may have always been like this, and we were not aware, or things have changed that much in the last 15 months, or we are used to how it works having lived in the land of dining out.....

The boys went to bed usual time on Christmas Eve.  It took them all a while to settle though.... We wrapped the last of the presents and settled down to sleep.

Luckily for the boys, Father Christmas remembered that they were in the UK (despite them forgetting to leave out milk cookies and carrots), and delivered their stockings.  The rest of their presents are waiting in the US.  For the first time the boys had presents from us.  Sebastian got a leap pad ultra, which he absolutely loves, despite paul and I having reservations.

Isaac and Oliver both got kindle fire HDs with kid proof covers.  Again, they love these and have great fun playing the apps and games.  We have not set any time limits on them (you can set time limits for games, apps, videos and leave books unlimited), but we fully intend to do so when we get back to the US.

We travelled mid morning from my mums to the Goslings.  Due to the rubbish weather (wind and rain), there were a few routes that were flooded with roads closed so we had to take a few detours.  We also had to drive through quite a few big puddles.  Our super happy fun bus hire car seems to be doing us well.  We reached the Goslings early afternoon, and the boys opened their presents.  They were very happy with what they received.  We had a delicious lunch, then the boys spent the afternoon playing with their presents.  We had to put Seb to bed about 7, as he was very tired, which meant he missed the arrival of auntie jenny, Tariq and Natalie.  The adults had decided in the afternoon we would save our presents till the evening, a first for us.  Oliver and Isaac were very happy to see jenny and Tariq, and of course their presents.  Everyone liked all their presents, which was a very good thing!

We got rid of the boys by about 9.30.  And then the fun began.  Our tent had been constructed in the back garden, for tony and Natalie to sleep in, save them being woken by the boys in the morning (they would have slept in the living room otherwise).  Keith and Tariq got a fire going in the BBQ, so we all headed out side.  It was cold, but the heat of the fire helped take the edge off.  We spent plenty of time outside drinking, chatting, catching up. 

We called it a night about 12.30.  The boys awoke about 8 again on Boxing Day.  Tony and Natalie had slept well outside, despite the cold, they had plenty of blankets and appreciated not being woken in the morning.  They headed off for Natalie's family party, a Boxing Day tradition.  We decided to go for a mcdonalds (our Boxing Day tradition) in Oxford.  We also had to buy a new ready bed for Isaac, as his had gone down in the night. This was our first trip to Argos in about 2 years.  We quickly remembered why.....  We got a new readybed and the Guess Who game for a bargain price.  The roads seemed quiet, so we went for a drive around Oxford.  It always strikes me how beautiful the city is, even at ground level.  The boys even seemed to enjoy hearing about daddy growing up there.  As the roads were so quiet, we were able to go round it, and back to the Goslings in 45 minutes.

As everyone had a heavy night the night before, early nights were had by all.  I went to bed about an hour before Paul, but only after having a nice catch up with jenny and Tariq and hearing how their year had been and their plans for the coming year.

We left fairly early the next day and traveled back to my dads, where the boys had yet more presents to open.  Again they were pleased with what they got, despite me making a big mix up with the lego, meaning they received duplicate sets.  Luckily my dad found the receipt.  The boys were very happy once they realized a trip to Toys r Us was on the cards.  They spent the evening watching tv, and playing their devices.  They went to bed at a fairly early time, ready for a trip to the coast the next day.....

Do you like their Christmas jumpers? The elf left them when he returned to help Father Christmas.  

Fall break fun

It's been a while, so this could be epic.  I apologize now.....

Last weekend we went up to Charlotte in North Carolina.  Paul had bought a bike from eBay, for a very bargain price, so we went and picked it up.  It is quite old, with most of the original parts, but luckily it does not need too much work.  Plus paul is used to working on bikes and knows exactly what he is doing.  On the way back we stopped at the Spartanburg International Festival.  My fried Liene put me on to this.  They have been running this festival for about 28 years.  There were copious stands representing 33 countries.  Liene was manning the Latvian stand.  We said hello, had a quick look around, they headed back to the car.  If it had not been so hot we may have stuck around a bit longer, but it was warm, the boys were grumpy, and we were all tired from being in the car so long.

Oliver and Isaac have both been off on fall break for the last week, Oliver on the Monday and Tuesday, Isaac all week. We all went to Gymboree on Monday.  I had promised the boys they could play iPods while Seb did his session, but they were far to busy watching and encouraging Sebastian to take part. They were able to come and so the bubbles and parachute part which they absolutely loved.  They were really well behaved, and a privilege to call mine. 

Decorating pumpkins

Tuesday we chilled around the house, and went out after dinner to watch Oliver play baseball.  His team won again!

Wednesday Oliver was back at school.  Isaac, Seb and myself met up with our friend Tracey and her Isaac at Monkey Joes.  This is a big building with about 8 bouncy castles/houses/slides in it.  We went the week before, and Seb was not very keen.  But with his big brother there, he was all over it.  By the end he had been in every bounce house, and was even going down the very big slides all on his own.  It is so nice once he gets used to places.

2 Isaacs + Sebastian = Monkey Joe's fun

From here, we headed to our friend Anna's house for some lunch and a nice catch up for me.  Again the boys were awesome, really well behaved all day.  Both boys fell asleep on the way to get Oliver.  This was the first time in about a month that Isaac has fallen asleep in the day.  My boy is growing up.....   When we arrived home, the package from Grandad had arrived.  This contained loads of lego base plates, the boys spent the afternoon setting up their city.  Lego is huge in our house at the moment.  Oliver had another baseball game on Wednesday night.  They won again.  They have not lost a game all season...... 

I was supposed to have my exam on Wednesday.  Unfortunately my assignment scores were very low, so low that if I had got 100% in the exam, I still would have failed.  I chose to not put myself through the stress of revising for an exam I was not going to pass, especially since changing my degree.

Ouch!

I was practicing with Oliver at baseball on Wednesday night.  When I awoke Thursday morning, I noticed my ring finger was all swollen.  I managed to get my wedding ring off, then I noticed the shape of my engagement ring.  It was all bent!  But in such a way, it had made my finger swell up.  I tried to get it off using some lotion, but it would not budge, and managed to cut my finger.  Paul came home at lunchtime, and had a go at reshaping it while still on my finger.  He did this at various times during the evening.  The cuts are pretty deep, but the swelling has gone down.  I am waiting for the cuts to heal before I try and get it off again.  This has happened before with this ring, and we managed to get it repaired.  I will wait to get it off my finger before we decide what we are going to do (new ring, new ring!!!)

Friday, Oliver forgot his lunch box.  I didn't know what to do with the boys this day, so this gave me a few ideas.  After we had dropped Oliver's lunchbox back at school, Seb, Isaac and I headed to Conastee park for a quick play.  From there we headed to Dollar Tree for my monthly pilgrimage of arts and learning supplies for Seb and Isaac(I will do a post about homeschooling soon, I am just lining up all my resources).  I love Dollar Tree.  I got loads, and the joy is everything is a dollar.  I spent under $20!  The on to Bi-Lo, for the food shopping, where I spent significantly more.....  Paul came home from work early, to watch the England Football game.

Yesterday we took a walk round our subdivision (estate) in the morning.  I love walking round.  It makes our front garden seem not so messy.  Lots of people had Halloween decorations out, which the boys enjoyed.  In the afternoon we headed to Fall for Greenville. This is a foodie type festival held down Main Street in Greenville.  It is in its 32nd year.  They close off the whole of Main Street and a lot of the side roads.  There were tents from over 40 restaurants this year, 3 live music stages and a kids area.  We arrived about 4pm.  Man, it was busy.....and we don't do busy.

Busy!

But it was manageable, as there were breaks in the crowd in between the stands.  The boys enjoyed the kids area, and went on quite a few of the bouncy castles.  We headed further down the street towards Falls Park and got some food. The boys all had pizza from Mellow Mushroom.  Paul had a slider and I had some Irish nachos from Fitzpatricks Food and Spirits.  These were crisps covered in salsa with gooey cheese.  They were all yummy, and reasonably priced.  There was not an empty plate.  By now all the boys were tired, and it seemed to have got busier.  I think we arrived at just the right time.  It felt like the daytime people were leaving as we arrived, and the evening crowd arriving as we were leaving.  As I said, we don't really like things like this, but we really enjoyed Fall for Greenville.  I think we will be back next year.  

Today we attempted to go to IHOP for breakfast.  Because we wanted to watch the formula 1 first, we didn't end up leaving till 11.  By this time, all the churches were kicking out, and both the local IHOP's
had people waiting outside.  So we went to Frankie's fun park instead, where the boys got to play a couple of rounds of minigolf and some arcade games before heading into Johnny Rockets for some lunch.  Paul has headed off on a drive event this afternoon, so it is just me and the chimps till Tuesday.  

I knew this was going to be an essay!

Long week

What a week.... To start with, paul was away Monday to Friday.  That made things hard.  Oliver's baseball season began this week.  He had 3 practices, all of them at 7.15pm, for an hour.  So I had to take all 3 chimps to Heritage Park.  This obviously resulted in 3 very late nights for all the boys, and mummy.  His team seems good, they are a mix of second and third graders.  As with last season, there are a couple of kids who are really good, but some don't have a very good attitude.....

Oliver also went back to school this week.  He had half days on Monday and Tuesday, when Isaac was in lunch and learn.  Then back to full days for the rest of the week, when Isaac was on half days.  It has been nice to have Isaac to myself in the afternoon while Seb sleeps (normally....)

Both Oliver and Isaac have had their well child check ups at the doctors in the last 10 days. They need a South Carolina immunization record so they can go to school. These involved full physicals with their new doctor.  i must say, she is awesome.  only problem with going to the doctors is it takes about an hour each time.   They both needed some jabs, 2 for Oliver, 1 for Isaac.  They both cried, it's difficult to say who cried the most...  Other than that, they are both fine.  Oliver is light, Isaac is more average.  Isaac's height has jumped about 3 percentiles in the last year.  I think he will be the biggest in both height and weight out of all the boys.  Seb has got his on Friday, should be interesting.....

Seb had his first session at Gymboree on Monday.  He cried for about a quarter of the time.  He eventually got used to the equipment, and was quite keen, but did not like it when they started doing singing and circle time.  He did however join in some of the 'kitchen helper' pretend play activities the ladies did.  I have signed him up for a month.  He will get used to it, it will do him good to listen to other adults, and I think he will come round to the singing and activities.  I have been getting him to sing along to songs on the radio in the car to help his vocalization. His favorites are 'blurred lines' (it's so cute, I sing the words, them he tries to copy, it is awesome.....) and 'heaven'.  He is best with songs that have sounds rather than words.  After we dropped Isaac at school on Monday, having already taken Oliver, Seb was so chatty.  He is getting there, I know it is just a matter of time before we can't shut him up either.  

As Paul had been away, we have been keeping busy.  We went to the pool after school on Monday and Tuesday.  

Out for dinner with Liene and her chimps on Tuesday night.  Gotta love Carolina Ale Houses kids eat for 99 cents.  It was an interesting dinner, all the kids ate, and were well behaved.  Think it is something we will be doing again.  Wednesday morning we had to go and get Oliver a helmet for baseball.  Oh the joys of being a second grader, they now need helmets.  I thought it would break   the bank, but it wasn't too bad.  We had some time to kill, so stopped in at Barnes and Noble to look at the books, and Seb played with the Thomas trains.  

I will mention now, Liene is in a poll for best Southern Mom blog on Circle of Moms.  She is an awesome writer, and has won many accolades already.  Please take the time to read her blog and vote.  I know she will appreciate it.  You can currently find it under the pending tab.

This is the link http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/Top-25-Southern-Moms-2013 

As for our home activities this week..... Seb has played with playdoh and lego at the same time, painted with cars, 

finger painted, brown bear matching game.  He helped me make cakes.  This was rather humorous.  I gave him some choc chips to eat while I did the tricky bits.  He proceeded in putting  these into the cake cases, instead of eating them.  So they are chocolate heavy cakes.  No complaints so far.  We met up with some friends at the park, and at the zoo.  He was very good on both occasions.  I have rarely used his bat wing reins.  Such an improvement.   He has also done the toothpick games on numerous occasions.  When we were tidying up the paints, he got the magnetic letters out, and started putting them into the roll of kitchen paper. 

 I ran with this (and another idea I saw on Pinterest), and cut a hole in the plastic lid of a coffee tin.  Seb then put all the magnetic letters into this instead.  This is a favorite activity.  He seems to love putting things into slots.  I have tried to get him to help sort the letters into colors first, but every time I do it, he messes it up!!!  Never mind, these things will come.  

Isaac has done painting with lego and cars this week.  He loved it.  This then led on to him cleaning everything after.  Then he decided he wanted to clean all his hero factory bits.  

This took a good chunk of time.  I have been offering Isaac computer time in the afternoon before Oliver comes home, and he has refused most of the time.  Both him and Oliver are having such a good time playing together with the Hero Factory, or watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I so remember this from being a kid....,).  They have such a beautiful relationship.  They are a right team.  But such hard work.  They answer to each other before answering to mummy or daddy.  Isaac wanted to get the Playmobil out on Friday  afternoon.  

I agreed, but thought we would go the whole hog and get it all out.  Needless to say, he played with it for about an hour before he started asking when Oliver was coming home.  It was packed away before bedtime (but at least I got the opportunity to sort it all out, and store it better, so sad......) 

Paul has finished the cat box.  It is cool, heavy, but cool.  Plus the cat uses it.  Makes the litter tray very inconspicuous, even if it does look like Snoopys home.  

His next task: a small bookcase for the reading corner.

As I say a busy week.  Hoping next week won't be so chaotic, but I doubt it........

A few photos

Here are a few photos to show what we have been up to this week....

Wednesday, Paul had to take a car from work on a long drive to test it (hard life, I know).  He decided to drive to Charlotte, and while he was there popped into the ikea.  We needed some boxes to go in a storage system we already have, its the Trofast system, so you can either get the boxes for $3 at Ikea, or $12 on Amazon.  I spotted a few other things we needed online, so he ended up with quite a bit....

 Thursday, Oliver and Isaac did lots of activities while Seb slept.  First up water balloon phonics.  Few things to note:  it is tricky to fill water balloons if you have long nails, use electrical tape (duct tape) not Sellotape when sticking them to the fence.   That being said, the boys had a blast.  Oliver tried really hard to match the endings to the letters stuck on the fence.  Isaac was more intent on throwing the balloons with full vigor.  And they even helped pick up all the little bits of balloon when they were finished

Next up was glitter pictures.  Our peppers come from the supermarket in packs of 4 in little black styrofoam trays.  I had 2 in the cupboard.  The boys had fun squeezing out the glitter pens, but the glue was a bit trickier.  They did enjoy sprinkling the glitter (making a mess).  I think these are awesome, I almost want to make them into Christmas/greetings cards somehow.

Next up was coffee filters art work.  I adapted this craft slightly.  We have a large amount of coffee filters, having bought them from Costco ages ago.  So I got the boys to colour them, then they sprayed them.  They liked this a lot too, and did about 12.  Paul came up with the idea of making a daisy chain out of them.

As we now have the storage boxes for arranging the Lego exactly how we want it, I spent yesterday afternoon sorting it back into colors, and Paul finished it off when he came home.  This is my 'helper'.....

So the learning room is nearly finished, just the cats litter tray to be removed.  Hopefully Paul will finish the box for it this weekend.  I will post more photos once it is done. I love it in there.  I am kinda looking forward to when I only have one child at a time, so I can make full use of the settings, with age appropriate activities.  The reading corner has been set up in the office room, I need to wash the pillow cases from the spare room to add to the comfiness of the corner.  Paul will eventually make a shelf for in there too.  For now the books will go on the desk area, once I have cleared the Lego from it on to the Lego table in the learning room (thats this afternoons job....).

I have also been rearranging my Pinterest this week.  I have made a new board for kids learning.  I was finding so many pins that were so appropriate for Isaac, but not for Seb.  Once Oliver goes back to school, I will have the afternoons with Isaac, and want to use my time wisely, and not just let him watch TV the whole time.  I also rearranged my life style board into separate boards for raising children, organization and hair and beauty.  I felt slightly cleansed after this..... 

Are you on Pinterest?